80 DESCRIPTION OF THE INHABITANTS. 



recreation ; and recreation to this people is only 

 known in intoxication, and hence they too are 

 amongst the pubhcan's best customers. 



The aborigines are a slender made people, with 

 faces and bodies as dark as a negro's, but with 

 straight Lair. Their features, to me, are unpleasing, 

 and tliey heighten the disgusting expression by be- 

 smearing the cheeks, forehead, and the fore part of 

 the hair with a reddish cla}', resembling Spanish 

 brown, mixed with oil. They are very filthy, being 

 alive with vermin. Their only clothing consists of 

 a kangaroo skin, with the hairy side turned in, 

 thrown over the shoulder; this they call a bouka. 

 The paint they put on their faces they call willagee. 

 Their weapons consist of a hard piece of wood, 

 shaped like a half moon, called a boomerang, which 

 they send whizzing through the air, striking any 

 object they aim at with the most unerring pre- 

 cision. The spear, too, they dart with exceeding 

 accuracy from a diamond-shaped piece of wood which 

 they call a womara; they also dart it from the hand. 

 One morning I had half a dozen children darting for 

 small pieces of tobacco, which they invariably struck. 

 They have a passion, like all uncivilized nations, for 

 rum and tobacco. The former they are debarred 

 from using, from the fact that the government inflicts 

 heavy penalties on any person who supplies them 

 with the smallest quantity of alcoholic stimulant. 

 Our fellows, in several cases, got a bottle and carried 

 it into the bush, and gave them small quantities for 

 the fun of seeing and hearing them dance and sing; 

 and, indeed, a very small portion of spirits causes 



